I have now watched Lower Decks

[conuly]

And one episode calls back to that TNG episode with the planet of people addicted to drugs and the planet that sells them the drugs, and... I mean, no. Just fucking no.

First of all, I no longer believe for one minute that the entire planet signed up to take these drugs to cure or prevent their virus in the first place. Even putting aside Trek's usual problem with understanding that diverse cultures can exist among one species or on one planet (and that extends to Earth itself, don't think I haven't noticed), nope, nuh-uh, no way. Maybe in the 80s this was plausible, but we just lived through covid.

Secondly, people die from withdrawal, Picard. People can die. And yeah, yeah, Prime Directive, blah blah blah - but no, that entire episode on TNG was written to promote the sort of tough love methods that are so popular in the USA. But are those methods actually effective*? Is cold turkey the best way to kick an addiction? Where, exactly, is the evidence? I'll wait.

So, no. No, no, no. That episode was bad from the start, and revisiting it didn't make it good... although it was a good point that you can't just pop in, handwave a fix, and then leave again, not that the Lower Decks episode actually did anything with that premise at all.

* Doing what's necessary to protect yourself from a loved one who is suffering from an addiction is not the same thing as just going "tough love" because you have this idea that it helps them. Even if the actual actions are the same, the motivations are different.

Comments

[sixbeforelunch]

It’s been a few years since I watched season 1 of TNG but iirc this was also the first episode where the Prime Directive went from being a guideline of “don’t be a colonizer and don’t use your technological advantage to destroy people’s culture” to “we don’t interfere in (some) other cultures even when not interfering is actively suicidal and/or unconscionable”.

People say Kirk disregarded the Prime Directive but as it was presented in TOS he really didn’t. He maybe skirted it a few times but he generally kept to the spirit of it. Even very early TNG had a similar approach with the Prime Directive being a firm reminder not to try to play god, but not actually a pair of handcuffs that forced officers to make boneheaded decisions because they can’t possibly do anything to interfere in a culture even if that culture is doing something very stupid that’s actively putting you or them at risk of total annihilation.

Like I said it’s been a while and I don’t remember exactly but I’m pretty sure this was the first episode where the Prime Directive was presented so illogically, presumably in service of writing a War on Drugs episode (ugh) and the franchise has been totally inconsistent with the Prime Directive ever since.

Basically I hate this episode as much as you do.

[movingfinger]

I have never watched TNG and every time people discuss specific episodes, rather than general character business, I am entranced with horror, specifically at Gene Roddenberry who tightly controlled the early seasons of the show and did not do anyone much good through that.

Thesis: The 80's and 90's (I guess: Buffy, which I also never watched) left us with a remarkably, unintentionally educational tranche of messed-up plots in shows and movies overly controlled by men (Lucas).

[conuly]

Love the userpic.

[conuly]

TNG is, imo, vastly overrated, mostly because the actors are so beloved - which is down 50% to them being great actors and 50% to them not being jerks.

[brokenallbroken]

The more I learn, the more I look askance at using purely behavioral/psychological interventions for something that is partly a neurological problem.

[conuly]

Cold turkey isn't even an intervention. It's the opposite of an intervention. It's a "You dumb idiot, you did this to yourself, so get yourself out it! If you ever do, call me!"